Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Michigan Tech’s Copper Country Robotics Team kicked off its Robot in 3 Days challenge on Saturday by watching a kickoff video.

HOUGHTON – On Saturday, Michigan Technological University’s Copper Country Robotics Team (CCRT) began a three-day effort to build an operational robot for a challenge.

David Reeves, MTU Computer Science major, said the team has 72 hours to build an operational robot.

The challenge started at Noon on Saturday, with participants watching a kickoff video in the Alley Makerspace. The Alley Makerspace is a collaborative facility in the Memorial Union Building open to all students that’s outfitted with tools and equipment for 3D printing, woodworking, electronics and more.

Reeves said this is the second year the CCRT has participated in the challenge.

“We’ve had a large growth in participation and interest in this challenge, which we’re really excited about,”Reeves said. “We have around 40 – maybe not all 40 are here – wonderful students who have registered, participated this season in our volunteering activities and are now here to build a robot with us.”

Robotics teams at high schools and colleges around the world tuned in to the 2025 FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition kickoff announcement via a global telecast, according to the Michigan Tech website, Stories from Husky Nation.

Students at Houghton High School were watching the kickoff on Saturday as well, Reeves said. “They have their own kickoff with teams throughout the Upper Peninsula.

Reeves said there is a lot of interest from high school students, and there are currently a couple of Michigan Tech students in the challenge who are Houghton High School graduates, who Reeves said he mentored. “A lot of things we’ve heard this year, since this is our second year, is ‘I came to Michigan Tech,’ or ‘I came to this club because of Robot in 3 Days (Ri3D).'”

While high school teams have six weeks to build their robots, college teams attempt the same challenge over just three days.

Reeves said the Challenge is not competitive with any other school. “We try to collaborate. We bump ideas off of other teams. We watch other teams throughout this process,” he said. “It’s a big just group collaboration because a lot of first robotics teams around the nation rely on robot in three days to get ideas and inspiration.”

Reeves said CCRT will enter a friendly competition with other colleges around Michigan.

CCRT has heard from many people in the FIRST community from the U.P. and beyond and they are excited that Michigan Tech is joining this challenge, said Reeves, adding several Michigan Tech alumni are club members and are excited CCRT joined the challenge.

Tuesday is will be the final build day, said Reeves.

“Basically, up until 12 p.m. we have the ability to build and program and everything like that,” he said, “so we’ll hopefully have everything for our robot done, whatever that looks like. I’m sure ideas are spinning around in their heads right now But we’ll see what happens.”